Mitt Romney and Herman Cain are trying to do an unprecedented thing — convince Americans that a business executive would be the best choice for president.

Romney, who is visiting western Iowa today, served a term as Massachusetts governor, but he says that experience is not central to his identity. He routinely describes himself as a “conservative businessman.”

At Tuesday night’s CNN debate, he declared that “the American people would be happy for an individual who can lead the country who’s actually created jobs,” and said “it is time to have someone who understands how the economy works, who can get America working again.”

Romney, a former venture capitalist, is seen as the national front-runner in the Republican race. Cain, a former Godfather’s Pizza executive, has enjoyed a surge of support in recent weeks.

“I’m a 42-year businessman,” Cain said in Tuesday’s debate, “which means I solve problems for a living. … I have managed small companies. I’ve actually had to clean the parking lot.”

Many other presidential candidates have had some business experience, but few made it the centerpiece of their campaigns.

Texan Ross Perot drew a lot of attention as a third-party, deficit-bashing candidate in 1992 and 1996. New Jersey magazine publisher Steve Forbes ran twice, managing a second-place finish in the 2000 Iowa caucuses before fading. Illinois tire magnate Morry Taylor campaigned in Iowa in 1996, but finished eighth in the caucuses and dropped out.

Could 2012 be the year of the businessman-president?

Several experts said it very well could be.

Tim Hagle, a University of Iowa political science professor, noted that the economy is by far the biggest issue in the election. Many Republicans believe President Barack Obama’s policies are strangling job-creating companies.

“Because of that, people might focus on somebody who has business experience and who could turn the economy around,” he said.

Hagle said the past U.S. president with the most business experience might have been Herbert Hoover, a native Iowan who was an engineer and mining executive, then coordinated food aid to post-World War I Europe before becoming U.S. commerce secretary. Many other presidents had business experience, but they were mainly known as public servants.

Top CEOs tend to be focused leaders whose experience wouldn’t necessarily translate well to the political world, Hagle said.

“When you have business people, you may not have people who are familiar with a broad set of issues,” he said. “You’re seeing that right now with Herman Cain,” who has been tripped up by questions about foreign policy.

Is take-charge style potential drawback?
Former Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen said that given corporations’ power in America, it’s a bit surprising that no executives have ever been elected president. He noted that several have achieved lower offices, including U.S. Senate seats. He said the economic doldrums give people like Romney and Cain an opportunity.

Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said a CEO’s take-charge mentality could be an odd fit in the Oval Office, however. Presidents need to be good at building consensus, he said, and that’s not the style of many corporate executives.

“They’re sort of ‘My way or the highway’ — and that doesn’t always work in politics,” he said.

Drake University political science professor Arthur Sanders agreed.

“When you’re a CEO and you want something done, you get it done. When you’re president of the United States, you have to get Congress to go along,” he said.

“If Herman Cain were to get himself elected president and went to Congress with his 9-9-9 (tax) plan and they rejected it, I don’t know how he’d react. I bet he’d be very frustrated, because running the country is not the same as running a business.”

But Forbes, the magazine publisher and former presidential candidate, is not so sure.

He said Harry Truman made similar predictions when Dwight Eisenhower transitioned from being a top general to being president.

“Truman had the cliche view that in the military you just give an order and it happens,” Forbes said Wednesday. “He didn’t know there are plenty of politics of a bureaucratic nature” in the military. Eisenhower went on to be an effective president, Forbes said.

The same thing could happen with a CEO who has learned how to make large, complicated organizations succeed, he said.

“You’re jostling with people, trying to persuade people, trying to get them over to your side for a project,” he said.

Economy plans have detail, simplicity
Forbes is leaning toward supporting Texas Gov. Rick Perry in this year’s election, but he said Romney and Cain could find success by running on their business experience.

He said Romney’s background as a nuts-and-bolts corporate consultant shows in the 59-point plan he proposed for the economy. The plan shows that Romney is thorough, Forbes said, but it might turn off voters.

“Fifty-nine points?” he asked. “Boy, it looks like you’re good on detail, you’re a good chief operating officer, but do you have that strategic vision?”

Cain was co-chairman of Forbes’ 2000 campaign. Forbes said Cain understands the value in straightforward proposals.

“Be bold, be simple, and you set your agenda instead of having people define you,” he said.

The main question with Cain now is whether he has time to build a sufficient organization, Forbes said.

Sanders noted that before 1968, the political parties chose their nominees at party conventions. By definition, he said, the nominees were well-connected political people. Since then, he said, it’s become easier for outsiders, including corporate executives, to try to win votes from rank-and-file party voters. The country is now going through one of its worst economic slumps since that change, he said, which could open the door for someone to win on business experience.

However, Sanders expects Romney’s opponents to try to ding his claim to be an outsider. Romney ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 1994, won the governor’s election in 2002 and is now running his second presidential campaign. That leaves him open to skepticism about his claim to be less than a professional politician, the professor said.

High interest seen in boosting hiring
Taylor, the tire and wheel manufacturer who ran in 1996, said today’s voters want someone who understands how to encourage employers to hire more people.

He said past campaigns by business executives might have been derailed because they talked frankly.

“Businessmen generally speak up,” he said. “They’ll stand up and tell you the facts.”

Professional politicians, many of whom are lawyers by profession, tend to be better at telling people what they want to hear, Taylor said.

Taylor runs Titan International, whose plants include a large factory in Des Moines. He said that either Romney or Cain could make an appealing candidate.

“Mitt Romney is probably the smartest of anyone running, and he is as fine a human being as you would ever want to meet,” Taylor said.

He added that Cain’s experience running a pizza company is probably easier for average people to understand than Romney’s experience as a high-flying venture capitalist.

“Cain resonates more with working men and women,” he said.

Taylor said he would support Cain, except he believes Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan will be shown to be tougher on moderate-income Americans, who would face higher sales taxes and income taxes than they now pay.